Q- Hi Jay, Glad to “have you here” on After The Launch! As you know, most of our readers are independent professionals and professional service firms who are very savvy at what they do but sometimes have a hard time “selling” their services. Please share some information with us about The Freelance Nation and how it can help them.
In general, The Freelance Nation was built to help freelancers increase their exposure on the Internet, help them find freelance jobs, provide access to self-employment support and offer professional networking opportunities.
In terms of marketing, The Freelance Nation helps freelancers market their services on the Internet in 6 different ways:
1. Members get 2-for-1 listings on our network for $4.95 – one profile in TheFreelanceNation.com, and one listing in their home city e.g. LosAngelesFreelancers.com, SeattleFreelancers.com, DallasFreelancers.com, etc. This is what I like to call the “Big fish in a small pond, small fish in a big pond” strategy.
2. For additional exposure, Members can target additional cities and categories, and sub-categories, via our ‘a la carte’ “marketing menu.” This exponentially increases a Member’s exposure and enables them to get business from other cities and sub-categories.
3. Each website in the Freelance Nation network is highly search engine optimized to increase visibility on the search engines
4. Each website is supported by an extensive search engine marketing plan and quality link development campaign.
5. Members can boost their search engine optimization by adding custom content, meta data, tags and keywords to their portfolio, profile and résumé to increase their exposure on both the national and local levels.
6. Members who really want to boost their Internet presence and drive potential clients to their profile can have their business featured on any (or all) of the 119 city-specific websites in the network.
Q- What makes The Freelance Nation site different from the other services out there, such as Elance and Guru.com?
There is quite a bit that is better about us. I was freelance copywriter for nine years before I started The Freelance Nation. This network is designed to fill the deficiencies of our competitors and add more personal service for the individual freelancer. I built this to be the ultimate service for people just like me – people who enjoy the freelance lifestyle and want to make living doing it.
1. 100% Blind Bidding – one of the things that irks me the most about other freelance job boards is that they require open bidding. This is absurd and is proof that they really aren’t looking out for the individual freelancer.
2. 2-for-1 listings (Local & Nat’l) – The Freelance Nation gives you twice what others do, and that’s only the start.
3. Customizable SEO’d Profiles – no other service lets you fully customize your own meta data. Most use the meta data on your profile to promote their business, not yours.
4. No Commission Fees or escrow accounts – I don’t want anyone in the middle of my business. I can’t imagine you want me in the middle of yours.
5. Larger network (119 websites) = more potential exposure
6. Local and National Job Search made easy – With the proliferation of the Internet and the trend toward local search, professionals can now find a lot of freelance projects in their local area. Many managers are tired of the complications inherent with long distance business relationships. The Freelance Nation allows them to find a local vendor who shares the same language, culture, time zone, currency, work style, and work ethic.
7. Self-employment and small business support – not only to we want to help you find jobs, we want to help you build a profitable operation and stay in business
8. Free Job Postings! – This encourages small companies to post jobs that you can bid on.
9. Partnerships with Jobster and SimplyHired – We are the only freelance job board to have partnerships with two of the largest Internet job providers in the world. It shows our Members that we are a legitimate company and we are here to stay.
10.Collaboration Nation! – We have a freelance forum dedicated to helping freelancers network, collaborate, get advice and promote their services.
Q- How can freelancers make the most of The Freelance Nation site?
That is a great question. Because Freelance Nation is so powerful in so many different ways, we are going to start a blog in the coming weeks to show people how to take full advantage of it. Until then, I am making myself available to all members to walk them through it step by step. I want to see people succeed on this site.
Q- Can you give After The Launch readers a few quick tips on how to create a winning freelancer profile?
In search engine optimization, content is king. Fill out your profile completely, including your tags and meta data, utilize the links to link to your website or professional profile (eg LinkedIn, Plaxo, Marzar, Facebook, etc). If you don’t like to type, copy and paste the content from one of your other profiles. Don’t forget to change it up a bit so the search engines don’t consider it duplicate content.
Q- What do you have cooking for freelancers in the future? Anything else?
So that we can keep adding value to our Members, The Freelance Nation will be a continual work in progress. We have a lot of new features and benefits coming soon to include more powerful partnerships, a job widget, the blog, more links in the profile, a more robust networking aspect and some other goodies as well. Our goal is build and actively promote the best Internet marketing tool and self-employed business community in the world that facilitates fair trade between freelancers and the businesses that depend on them. We intend to be here for a long time to come.
